Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Monday accused Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of “using” the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department against him and his family and claimed there was no illegality in any transaction.
The ED has summoned Capt. Singh’s son Raninder, in connection with its probe against him for alleged forex contraventions and holding of untaxed foreign assets.
“He (Jaitley) has ED, Income Tax Department under his ministry and is using those against me and my family members to avenge his defeat (from Amristar Lok Sabha seat),” he alleged.
“Next time, the ED may summon me...this will be built up till (Punjab) elections. This has been happening because elections are round the corner…after seven months they will forget it,” Capt. Singh claimed.
“I also got a notice from the Income Tax department when I was in the US. I have replied to that. They can call the ED, Income Tax...we will come out clean,” he asserted, adding,“there is no illegality and no breaking of Indian law at all.”
According to official sources, Raninder has been summoned by the ED to explain the alleged movement of funds to Switzerland and creation of a trust and a few subsidiaries in the tax haven of British Virgin Islands.
The said instances have earlier been investigated by the Income Tax Department and a case in this regard is currently in court in Punjab. The next hearing in this case is slated for July 26.
Capt. Singh claimed that investigating agencies did not find anything wrong against him and his family members when the issue came up in 2005.
The Lok Sabha MP from Amritsar alleged that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken against him in Barmer during Lok Sabha elections in 2014 in order to help Mr. Jaitley win polls in Amritsar.
“When the BJP formed government, Mr. Jaitley asked a very senior officer to register a case against me within two months. The officer after few months even told him that there was nothing wrong against me,” he claimed.
“He (Jaitley) is a petty man. They have done it with P. Chidambaram, Virbhadra Singh,” Capt. Singh alleged.
To a query on the role of Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the anti-Sikh riots, he said that he had not heard his name from the victims of the violence in Delhi between November 1 to 4, 1984.
“Names of five people came up, who were Sajjan Kumar, H. K. L. Bhagat, Dharamdas Shastri, Lalit Maken and Arjan Das. The name of Mr. Tytler appeared when he fought elections against Madan Lal Khurana in Delhi. If his name (Tytler) comes up during investigation, then hang him,” he said. PTI
